Post-Ottoman Topologies: The Presence of the Past in the Era of the Nation-State(8 Studies in Social Analysis)

How are historians and social scientists to understand the emergence, the multiplicity, and the mutability of collective memories of the Ottoman Empire in the political formations that succeeded it? With contributions focussing on several of the nation-states whose peoples once were united under the aegis of Ottoman suzerainty, this volume proposes new theoretical approaches to the experience and transmission of the past through time. Developing the concept of topology, contributors explore collective memories of Ottoman identity and post-Ottoman state formation in a contemporary epoch that, echoing late modernity, we might term “late nationalism”.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Presence of the Past in the Era of the Nation-State Nicolas Argenti Chapter 1. Fossilized Futures: Topologies and Topographies of Crisis Experience in Central Greece Daniel M. Knight Chapter 2. Prayer as a History: Of Witnesses, Martyrs, and Plural Pasts in Post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina David Henig Chapter 3. Surviving Hrant Dink: Carnal Mourning under the Specter of Senselessness Alice von Bieberstein Chapter 4. The Material Life of War at the Greek Border Laurie Kain Hart Chapter 5. (Re)sounding Histories: On the Temporalities of the Media Event Penelope Papailias Chapter 6. Between Dreams and Traces: Memory, Temporality, and the Production of Sainthood in Lesbos Séverine Rey Chapter 7. “Eyes Shut, Muted Voices”: Narrating and Temporalizing the Post-Civil War Era through a Monument Dimitra Gefou-Madianou Chapter 8. Uncanny History: Temporal Topology in the Post-Ottoman World Charles Stewart Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Nicolas Argenti is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Brunel University. He is the author of The Intestines of the State: Youth, Violence, and Belated Histories in the Cameroon Grassfields (2007) and coeditor of several collections, including (with Katharina Schramm) Remembering Violence: Anthropological Perspectives on Intergenerational Transmission (2010).

Review :
“This outstanding collection shows us that even after imperial borders disappear, the legacy of empire lives on in the intimate spaces of affect, emotion, gesture, and memory. The focus on the “post-Ottoman” is a challenge to definitions of the postcolonial that limit it to Western European empires. This makes the book essential reading not only in Middle Eastern and Balkan Studies but also for scholars who wish to think more broadly about imperial half-lives.” • Rebecca Bryant, Utrecht University “This highly original volume studies the post-Ottoman condition in terms of how time is experienced socially, cosmologically, and experientially. It will be a crucial reference not only for studies of post-Ottoman geographies, but also for the comparative and conceptual anthropology of temporality.” • Yael Navaro, University of Cambridge